The effect of a maternal training programme on early childhood development in Egypt.

Background: The initial years of life, particularly the first two years, are considered the most important for brain development and timely interventions profoundly affect the health of the child and families.

Aims: This study aimed to determine the effect of maternal health education on motor, social and cognitive development in infants less than two years old, and to identify the factors that could affect normal development.

Methods: Two hundred and ten mothers and their infants (109 interventions, 101 controls) were recruited from maternal and child health centres in Assiut Governorate, Egypt, in 2017. The maternal training programme has been taught to mothers of infants in intervention groups twice per month and up to five months' duration; however, routine services are provided to control groups only. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify the most important predictors of normal development.

Results: There were significant improvements in early childhood developmental domains for the intervention groups after five months comparable to the base line assessment. Percent of normal development among intervention groups in communication subscale increased from 46.8% to 76% to 97.9% compared to 50.5% to 46.8% to 57.4% in the control groups (baseline, after two month and after five months assessment respectively). The intervention was a significant predictor in normal development.

Conclusions: There was an improvement in early childhood developmental domains for the intervention groups after applying maternal training programme. Designing educational interventions for routine health care services that reach all children will provide mothers with the opportunity for improvement in early childhood developmental.